Free Republic

The Humane Society of the U.S. has, for years, been trying to frighten people away from consuming meat, milk and eggs -- but its recent testimony before a congressional committee reached a new low when the HSUS president, Wayne Pacelle, made the unsupported claim that pigs could be harboring the infamous and deadly British ‘mad cow” disease. Swine veterinarians quickly pointed out that “mad cow,” or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, has never occurred naturally in swine. At the height of the British “mad cow” epidemic, both swine and cattle were exposed to the tissues from thousands of infected cattle and the...

Police are seizing more smuggled meat than ever before, and border patrols suspect organized smuggling gangs that are supplyng a market keen on dodging Norway's high meat prices. Customs authorities have seized 34 tons of meat smuggled into Norway so far this year. That's three times the amount seized in the same period last year. Police, customs and officials from Norway's Food Safety Authority (Mattilsynet) have no doubt the smuggling has become organized. Several of the couriers caught with smuggled meat are repeat offenders, and the quantities of meat caught in some seizures is so large (2.8 tons on one...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumers overwhelmingly support stricter food labeling laws, with 92 percent of Americans wanting to know which country produced the food they are buying, a consumer magazine said on Tuesday. Consumer Reports said recent food scares, including worries about peanut butter and lettuce, have made Americans more interested in knowing not only how their food was produced but where it was made. "I was definitely shocked at how high these numbers were," said the study's coauthor Dr. Urvashi Rangan, a senior scientist and policy analyst at Consumers Union, the nonprofit organization that publishes Consumer Reports magazine. "It's...

Supermarket meat 'could be MRSA infected' By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 12:39am BST 25/06/2007 Pork, beef and chicken in supermarkets could be infected with a strain of MRSA, according to a report today by organic campaigners which warns that the issue could become "a new monster". The bacterium is sweeping northern Europe and has already infected one in five of all pork products on sale in Holland, from where Britain imports almost two thirds of all its pork, the report claims. The strain found in Holland, Denmark, Belgium and Germany is different from MRSA found in British...

I like sizzling meat on the grill. Wild, huh? Anybody? Now, we all know ol' Nuge isn't by any stretch of the imagination a weirdo when it comes to an omnivorous diet. Especially here in the great Republic of Texas, a smiling, drooling preference for succulent, protein-rich, nutritious backstrap over aromatic mesquite coals is as American and natural and right as Mom, apple pie and the flag. It's beautiful, really. But a culture war rages against such universal, self-evident truths. It would be laughable if it were not so deranged. Some weirdos actually are on a crusade to outlaw the...

Should hunters -- or anyone who enjoys a steak or a hamburger -- have to pay extra for that little indulgence? People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals thinks so. One of the nation's largest anti-hunting organizations, the group has kicked off a "Tax Meat" Campaign, proposing a 10-cent-per-pound excise tax on meat. Animal activists have also asked federal lawmakers to give tax breaks to those who have sworn off the consumption of animals.

Polish meat vendors have let down their homeland once again. Warsaw will no longer be able to claim that Russia is turning down its meat for political reasons. The local sanitary services of the Berlin district of Moabit have qualified Polish meat as health-threatening. Initially, they did not even have to conduct sophisticated tests. The meat looked so bad that the police immediately arrested five tons of Polish turkey. At first, the sanitary services became suspicious about mandatory certificates. They not only failed to conform to the German rules, but were not even properly executed. So, Poland has exported meat...

ALBANY, Ga. - For a quarter century, chefs at pricey steakhouses have been searing meat on burners that cook with infrared energy. Now the high-temperature technology may be coming to a backyard barbecue near you. With the expiration of a key patent, major gas grill manufacturers, including market leader Char-Broil, have scrambled to bring infrared cooking to the masses with models in the $500 to $1,000 range. Previously, such grills cost as much as $5,000. "Infrared is really hot," said Leslie Wheeler, a spokeswoman for the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association, an industry group in Arlington, Va. "They're great for...

Botulism warning over vacuum-packed meat By staff and agencies Last Updated: 9:30am BST 21/04/2007 * Lettuce recalled over salmonella fears(Go to the site to click on article) Consumers have been warned not to eat batches of vacuum-packed meat sold in Scotland and Cumbria over concerns it could be infected with one of the most lethal forms of food poisoning. The alert is over smoked wild venison and smoked beef The Food Standards Agency (FSA) issued the alert over 2.6kg of smoked wild venison and smoked beef amid fears it is tainted with the deadly botulism bacteria. The warning applies to...

Energy Policy: Those who want to end global warming and our reliance on foreign oil often propose a massive "carbon tax" to make crude less appealing. Don't look now, but you're already paying it. By heavily subsidizing the use of ethanol, a fuel additive less efficient than gasoline and costlier to produce, Congress has, in effect, enacted a tax hike. No, it's not the kind you see at the pump each time you fill up — like the current 18.4-cents-a-gallon federal levy on gasoline. Rather, it's the kind of tax you pay quietly, without even realizing it.

In what animal-welfare advocates are describing as a "historic advance," Burger King, the world's second-largest hamburger chain, said Tuesday that it would begin buying eggs and pork from suppliers that did not confine their animals in cages and crates. The company said that it would also favor suppliers of chickens that use gas, or "controlled-atmospheric stunning," rather than electric shocks, to knock birds unconscious before slaughter. It is considered a more humane method, though only a few slaughterhouses use it.The goal for the next few months, Burger King said, is for 2 percent of its eggs to be "cage-free," and...

An Indian man has eventually solved the puzzle of his missing chickens after catching his sacred cow gobbling up several the birds in the coop at night. When dozens of chickens went missing from a remote West Bengal village, everyone blamed the neighbourhood dogs. Ajit Ghosh, the owner of the missing chickens, decided to stand guard at night at the cow shed that also served as a hen coop after 48 chickens went missing in a month. "We were shocked to see our calf eating chickens alive," Ajit Ghosh told Reuters from Chandpur village, about 240 kilometres north-west of capital...

Feds to Toughen Meat, Poultry Inspection Sunday February 18, 2007 6:46 PM By LIBBY QUAID AP Food and Farm Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The first major changes to food inspection in a decade will increase federal scrutiny of meat and poultry plants where the danger from E. coli and other germs is high or where past visits have found unsafe practices. The new policy will result in fewer inspections at plants with lower risks and better records for handling meat and poultry. ``We're just putting resources where the risk is greatest, and those plants that demonstrate excellent control will get...

Australian scientists say they have found morsels of fossilized muscle—the oldest vertebrate tissue ever known—in the remains of two fish that lived 380 to 384 million years ago. Unearthed in western Australia 20 years ago, the specimens belong to two species of an extinct group of primitive, armored fish known as placoderms (map of Australia). The fish's remarkably well-preserved soft tissues include bundles of muscle cells, blood vessels, and nerve cells. They were found during recent electron microscope scans, the research team reported last week in the British journal Biology Letters. Fossilized muscle is quite rare, and the new finds...

CONTROVERSIAL Islamic cleric Taj al-Din al-Hilali has reportedly claimed Muslims have more right to be in Australia than people of Anglo-Saxon descent because their ancestors were not convicts.

WICHITA, Kan. - When hordes of police and immigration officials stormed meatpacking plants in six states this week, the illegal workers arrested may not have been the only victims. Consumers and the industry itself may be feeling the repercussions in a shortage of meatpackers, higher wage costs and, ultimately, higher prices for the beef that lands on America's tables at home and in restaurants. Some analysts see the current emphasis on enforcement in the meatpacking industry as the precursor to getting an immigration bill through Congress — by demonstrating the government's capability to enforce laws at the work site. "The...

China zoo sells crocodile meat to raise money Tue Nov 7, 3:33 AM ET A crocodile zoo in south China's island province of Hainan has started selling its animals to local meat lovers in an effort to raise money, a zoo official has said. The Nantai Crocodile Lake Zoo, home to over 3,000 crocodiles, started the trade late last week, offering the exotic meat at 216 yuan (27 dollars) per kilogram, said Zheng Yi, the zoo's director. "So far we've managed to sell the meat of one or two crocodiles a day," Zheng told AFP by telephone. "If there is...

Nine Somali immigrant employees at poultry processor Gold'n Plump Poultry Inc. alleged in a federal lawsuit that they were discriminated against because of their race and religion at the company's Cold Spring, Minn., plant. The group alleges the St. Cloud-based company would not permit them short breaks during the day to pray. The Muslim faith, the lawsuit says, requires five prayers a day at times defined by position of the sun. The lawsuit also claims that the company was more likely to force Somalis than whites to work the night shift and do the least desirable jobs in the factory....

House Votes To Ban Horse Slaughter WASHINGTON -- The House voted on Thursday to ban the slaughter of horses for meat, a practice that lawmakers thought they already had ended. Instead of banning it outright, Congress last year yanked the salaries and expenses of federal inspectors. But the Bush administration simply started charging plants for inspections, and the slaughter has continued. The House vote was 263-146 to outlaw the killing of horses for human consumption. Opponents of the practice showed photographs of horses with bloodied and lacerated faces, the result of being crammed into trailers that would carry the animals...

WASHINGTON - The head of a processing plant that slaughters horses for overseas consumption defended his industry in an emotion-packed congressional hearing Tuesday and urged lawmakers to reject legislation that would outlaw the practice. But proponents of the bill assailed the $60 million-a-year horse-slaughter industry - composed of two plants in Texas and one in Illinois - as inhumane and socially deplorable, citing the death of 1986 Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand in an overseas slaughterhouse several years ago. "Hopefully it will not take the slaughter of another Derby winner to put the spotlight on this important issue and shut down...